The thread on thank you notes got me thinking about this, so I wondered what you all think.

Usually, when I donate to charities online, I get an emailed thank you. I don't donate for the thank you, but it seems to me that it's polite for charities to say thank you for donations. Two charities that I donated to (one last year, one this year) didn't send a thank you email. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that the emails disappeared en route.

But, say they didn't - say you donated twice or more to a charity and didn't get a word of thanks. Would you be put off by a charity that doesn't send a thank you?

Personally, I'd be upset if they didn't send me any acknowledgement of my donation at all, but usually the receipt contains a "thanks for donating" line and that's enough for me.

But, it's charity, so you can donate using whatever standards you'd like, including whether or not they send you a thank you note! If you have a long term relationship with the charity, it might be nice to drop them a note letting them know that you appreciated the thank you notes and see if that gets them to send you one with your next donation, but since this is primarily a business relationship, you can donate or not for whatever reasons you choose.

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"The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Back when DP was acting as a church secretary, one of the first duties she was given, and stressed to make sure she understood it, was to send thank you notes for every donation, within a week of the receipt of the donation. She was told to send them out even for things like cookies for coffee hour and flowers for the altar. Sure there were a few folks that ended up with 'bulk' thank yous (the same families would bring in cookies, flowers, donate to the rummage sale, add an extra $$ to the minister's emergency fund, and bring in fertilizer for the plants in the gardens, and they would get one long thank you). But when they started tracking those things, they found that donations were up a good percentage, and repeat donations up a really large percentage, from the year before. When asked, they often cited the thank you notes! So it's not just good manners, but good business sense to do those things when you're a charity.

I would be a bit miffed at not receiving a TY from a charity after giving a donation.

TY notes from charities aren't the same as TYs from individuals. One of the purposes of them is to give the donor proof of a donation that can be used for income tax purposes.

Those who choose to give money to a charity deserve that courtesy.

We need those thank yous for Income Tax deductions. That with our credit card statements are the only proof we have that we made the donations. The IRS is cracking down on those deductions now, whereas in the past they would accept an estimate if it was under a certain amount. (US)

Personally, I'd be upset if they didn't send me any acknowledgement of my donation at all, but usually the receipt contains a "thanks for donating" line and that's enough for me.

But, it's charity, so you can donate using whatever standards you'd like, including whether or not they send you a thank you note! If you have a long term relationship with the charity, it might be nice to drop them a note letting them know that you appreciated the thank you notes and see if that gets them to send you one with your next donation, but since this is primarily a business relationship, you can donate or not for whatever reasons you choose.

Well, that saved me a whole bunch of typing!

Also, when I donate to a charity, I'm not really doing anybody any favors. I am *competely* furthering my OWN agenda.

I donate to organizations because I believe in their causes. I'm not doing it to be nice; I'm doing it to get a job done. I have a goal, and I consider that the charity will help me accomplish it.

i'm not helping them. They're helping me. If they weren't, I wouldn't donate.

I don't know. A thank you is nice but on the other hand, we judge charities on the efficiency of how much goes to administrative costs vs. those in need. If they send me a receipt and a thank you note and do the same for every other person who donates - that is time and probably money that might be spent elsewhere. It does seem like a thank you/receipt would be enough.

OP here. The two charities I referred to, I donated via PayPal, so the only receipt I got was the automatic "you sent a payment" from PayPal. And, as I'm in the UK, I don't need a receipt for tax purposes.

I guess another part of my...unease (for want of a better word) is that I also wonder if the charity even received my donation. I just have to assume PayPal worked as it should and the donation reached them.

Oh, if the charity isn't responding to your contribution at all, that's a whole different kettle of fish for me.

I thought you were receiving an official acknowledgement email/receipt and then hoping for a separate thank you note, but getting nothing at all would make me want to contact them to make sure they'd actually gotten the initial donations and I probably wouldn't donate again. I like getting some sort of response from anyone with whom I conduct business.

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"The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

Oh, if the charity isn't responding to your contribution at all, that's a whole different kettle of fish for me.

I thought you were receiving an official acknowledgement email/receipt and then hoping for a separate thank you note, but getting nothing at all would make me want to contact them to make sure they'd actually gotten the initial donations and I probably wouldn't donate again. I like getting some sort of response from anyone with whom I conduct business.

Oh, no! It's total silence - no acknowledgement, nothing. That's what has me scratching my head over them. The thank you notes thread reminded me of it, which is why I phrased it the way I did.